Mine is still in my nursery bed, but going out into the garden this spring. It, along with everything else in the nursery bed, suffered a bit of a setback year before last when I had to dig up the entire bed to allow access for a backhoe to get to the septic tank, but has recovered nicely and is a little bigger this year. Pretty little thing, and one of the first that I go out to check on in the spring.

And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne

I didn't see this thread in May (our busiest single month of the entire year - aka our make it or break it month) so now that I've seen it, thank you for sharing Tigger

Radiant Star is a sport of Radiant Edger, so not a creation but a discovery. We had just potted up a batch of Radiant Edger in the spring of 2005 and I noticed an eye off one of them with this darker center. It was tucked at the side and underneath the leaves of its parent, but still jumped out at me and I had one of those "holy sh%%" moments. So I set it aside to work on it later. I showed it to anyone interested to gauge their reaction to it, and everyone thought it was really nice looking. That summer I split it off the main plant and planted it into the ground. The next spring it came up with two eyes looking like the sport and a 3rd eye that had a greenish edge but the same dark center. We have never named or done anything with that greener edged one, but still have it here (several plants actually). The greener one reminds me of Pamela Lee, which is why we didn't do anything with it in the long run. Here is a picture of it after I divided the single clump to remove the greener edged one, and got 3 divisions from it. This is in 2006.

radiantedgersports.jpg

This little row of plants was in the very far back corner of the hosta growing area, tucked away where I thought nobody would ever find it or see it, as I just wanted to evaluate it for myself. It was the most asked about plant in 2006 and 2007, so I knew we had to do something with it. In 2006 we actually started to look around for anyone to do the tissue culture work, and basically everyone passed on it. Walters Gardens said it was too similar to others they were working on, Zilis passed on it, and Shady Oaks never returned multiple phone calls. We registered it at the end of 2007 and also at the end of that year I got in touch with Bill Silvers and he told me he was just about to send his plants out to the lab (overseas) to get work done and if I sent the plant overnight he would do a TC run for me. We asked him to do 1500 plants! which we got back here in the summer of 2009, and wow were they tiny. We culled out a lot of solid greens and solid yellow plants but probably still had over a thousand plants to get into the ground by the end of that year. We grew them over 2 winters and started selling them in 2011 and are still selling from and dividing new plants from that same batch today. Not sure if I have made my money back yet, but probably will after a couple more years.

I don't really have a more recent picture, but you guys sure have some great shots of it

Thanks again for starting sharing!

Chris

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Ann, sorry but you can only have it from Chris. Do not know if Canada do silly rules like the EU ?

In the last years it have been possible for EU citizents to bye up to 10 plants in other countries, IF they wash off the soil and bring them home in their handluggage. Good rule if you bye from a controlled and knowledged nursery, but you can walk into a big box store or other places where they do not care about planth health and bye 10 infected plants Then we still can not mail order from the good places without a lot of problematic and risky things

Chris mailed it to the hotel where my son stayed so I got it last fall

By the way, we figured out the NOID above 'Radiant Star' in the pic above. I bought it as 'Rise and Shine', which it clearly isn't. But it is 'Bedford Rise and Shine'. I'm not sure why the registrar allows such confusion. I'm looking forward to seeing this bloom, as I remember the flowers were particularly nice (it's a yingeri cross).

I looked up Bedford Rise and Shine in the Hosta Library and thought the picture looked like Gentle Spirit. But your plant is different with that wider white border. Nice looking plant - can you post the flower pictures when they show up?

It had managed to contract some sort of fungal leaf rot that was triggered severely by warm weather (although I think most are). That pic was taken in early 2013 just as it was almost done unfurling.

But we had a really bad June that year and the temps were high with an abnormally large amount of rain. Somewhere in all that it became very sick. I tried desperately to save it, unpotting and cleaning off all the rot. It had managed to go right down the middle, leaving me with two smaller crowns. They both got potted up separately and planted last spring before they emerged. Sadly, only one came up. Here is a pic of him in early 2014.

I was hopeful though since it looked healthy and not plagued by whatever ailed it the year before. But then, sure enough, as soon as the weather warmed up the same symptoms appeared and I had to destroy the plant. It was a sad day.

But Chris, being the gentleman that he is, was so kind as to hear my story and sent a replacement. That was potted up last year and paid very special attention to. I also decided to put it in some more light than the other had received to try and keep the leaves drier and help the plant stay stronger with some a dat solar energy. Seemed to work well since it looked great all year and held its color more so in the increased light.

So as not to take any chances, I did amend a nice part of Bed #2 and planted it in the ground to overwinter. I had a lot of early spring damage in 2014 to my potted hostas, and now understand that to really give them the safest winter, they need to be in the ground.

But yea, I do love the little guy, and would always make sure I had at least one in my garden. Although I certainly don't have plans to kill any more.

Ludi

The only thing two Gardeners will ever agree on is what the other is doing wrong.

You won't know how to grow a plant successfully until you've killed it a few times.

How sad to lose a 'Radiant Star' but what a happy ending! It restores faith in mankind when someone, such as Chris at Hallson's, does something for you they didn't have to do.

Some wise, old gardener once said "I have never killed any plants but I've had some that committed suicide. All I can do is try and prevent them from committing suicide".

How do you store your potted plants in winter? I have had good results storing mine in bicycle boxes in my unheated garage here in Minnesota. I stack the pots in the boxes, alternating the rows as much as possible. The first year I did this, I put snow on the pots a couple times during the winter. Since that first year, I don't put any moisture on the potted plants during winter and they do well.